Saturday, October 15, 2005

Hard and fast answers to hard and fast questions

Child psychologists often publish results of studies based on the questionnaire method. They take a group of children and ask them: "Do you do this (or that)? How often do you do it? Do you read this (or that)? What do you like better (this or that) ?" - and so on. This questionnaire method is inadequate. To ask children a series of simple questions and expect real enlightenment from their answers is even more misleading than to carry out the same procedure with adults. The younger the child, the more erroneous are the conclusions likely to be drawn. Children love to express themselves, but giving hard and fast answers to hard and fast questions is neither their favorite nor their natural method. Even if they do their best, the procedure is crude and leaves out all the finer shades of the dynamics of childhood thinking. On this premise we decided from the very beginning not to rely on any single method, but to use all the methods of modern child psychiatry which were suitable and possible in the individual case.

About Me

Name: Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D.

Location: Afghanistan

This blog is the result of seven years of scientific investigation conducted by myself, Dr. Fredric Wertham. I have had long experience in technical research and was the first psychiatrist to be awarded a fellowship by the National Research Council. From my studies on the brain came an authoritative textbook, THE BRAIN AS AN ORGAN, used all over the world. My clinical investigations resulted in the discovery of a new mental disease now incorporated in leading psychiatric textbooks.
I was senior psychiatrist for the Department of Hospitals in New York City from 1932 to 1952, directed the mental hygeine clinics at Bellevue Hospital and Queens Hospital Center, and was in charge of the Court of General Sessions Psychiatric Clinic. For over twenty-five years I have been giving expert opinion in medico-legal cases. My advice has been sought by defense counsels, district attorneys, judges and legislators. My views have been discussed before
state and Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.
An "expert opinion" by a psychiatrist is an opinion based on facts, facts that can be demonstrated and proved.